Lazymom Travels To Busan Korea-7 Days Itinerary:Day 2

Day 2 Beomeosa Temple - Geumjeongsan Cable Car Ride

0900 Breakfast
1000 Beomeosa Temple
1400 Geumjeongsan Cable Car Ride
1800 Dinner and return to hotel

Breakfast

We came across an eatery on our 2nd morning in Busan. It's less than 5 minutes walk from the Sasang Max Motel and it was on the way to Sasang Metro Station. The place is small and we saw a number of Koreans inside. Must be good then.

As mentioned in my previous post, Korean eateries are very specialised in what they serve. This one serves only noodles, rice and 1 type of dumpling.

Hive account@davidke20 is always budget conscious so I let him decide what to eat for breakfast. Referring to the pictures plastered on the wall, he ordered the cheapest bowl of noodle. All written in Korean so we didn't know what we were going to get. I wanted the dumplings only. One can't go wrong with dumplings in an Asian country, right?

The noodle is only available during summer. Guess what noodle we had.

Or not guess and read Hive account@davidke20 post about our first Korean breakfast.

The dumplings were seriously good. Reminded me of Po from Kungfu Panda.

Yup. The dumpling looked like that to me.

Breakfast cost was KRW 8300 (roughly RM 30). Not cheap if compared to 2 bowls of noodles in a coffeeshop back home. So, budget for food in Busan around RM 40 per meal should be safe. I didn't quite take to the cold noodle but it was a good experience.

After breakfast, the Malaysian inside me wanted coffee, knowing there would be no 'teh tarik'. Luckily there was a coffee vending machine just outside the eatery.

We picked cafe au lait. It was only 3/4 of a disposable cup full, lol. But it was good enough for that morning.

Same like yesterday, we took the train to Seomyeon Station to changed to Line 1 headed for Beomeosa Station to visit Beomeosa Temple. This time, instead of topping up our T-Money cards, we bought the fullday Humetro pass that cost KRW5000 each giving us unlimited train rides the whole day. Otherwise, each one way trip would cost around KRW 1300 per person after KRW100 rebate by using T-Money card. Without T-Money card, each way is KRW 1400.

Read Hive account@davidke20 post about Busan metro. Because we used a lot of metro, we mostly kept the T-Money cards for bus rides and for purchases at convenient stores. You can pay for something using both T-Money card and cash if the balance in the card is not sufficient. All tickets and top-ups can be done at any metro stations using their vending machines. Top-up machines only take KRW 1000 notes but they provide a small notes changing machine, so you can change KRW 50000 into small KRW 1000. Vending machines display comes in both Korean and English, just touch a button to change the language.

Ticket purchase and subway ride in Busan, South Korea I found from youtube while I was researching

While walking inside Seomyeon Station, we spotted some art pieces being displayed.

Inside the train to Beomeosa I continued watching Train To Busan. Thanks to unlimited wifi, I got myself kept up to date with Malaysian news as well every time I'm in the train.

The Geumjeongsan Mountain map.

One can hike from Beomeosa Temple to any of the 4 gates of the magnificent Geumjeongsanseong Fortress (ranging from 2 hours to 5 hours hike)

We arrived at Beomeosa Station, one can either walk 3km to the temple or take bus #90 from Samsin Bus Stop which is a 10 minutes ride. The temple is located on the edge of the Geumjeongsan Mountain.

Husband said, "Only 3km, let's walk".

The walk up was pleasant but after a while started to sweat as the sun was rising higher.

Thinking this was the temple entrance, we actually walked in but soon found out it wasn't, so we turned back. Thank goodness it was a bus stop. So I decided we should take the bus for the remaining of the journey up.

We hopped on, touched our T-Money cards on the panel and after a short 5 minutes ride we got off at the entrance to the temple grounds.

This is where bus #90 drops off and pick up passengers to/from Beomeosa Temple.

See the staircase? It leads to the temple.

A stream under the bridge. Made me want to soak my feet.

We walked. And walked. And walked some more.

At the entrance to the main temple. I didn't go in to take photos because there were people praying inside.

Part of Geumjeongsan Mountain viewed from the temple entrance.

Temple roof.

All the roofs of Busan temples are similar in design. So if you've seen one, you've really seen them all. Still, it's amazing when you see them with your own eyes.

We were offered food from strangers.

2 ajumma gave us a savoury snack made of rice flour (I suspect) with green bean fillings (I suspect). Absolutely nothing strange about accepting food from strangers at all, because that sort of became our lunch and we were thankful for the blessing in this holy site. Actually, we hardly felt much pangs of hunger since day 1.

The one thing that differentiates Korean temples from Chinese temples would be these colourful lanterns. They carry people's prayers.

Let's a take detour to visit Hive account@davidke's post on Beomeosa Temple
https://steemit.com/cn/@davidke20/beomeosa-temple

Shot taken standing under the lanterns with the sun high up in the sky

A closer look

We saw more of these lanterns even before we stepped into any of the temple buildings

This is the main temple

A photo of Hive account@davidke20 taking a photo of the temple

Love this panaromic shot

All the writings on the temple are in traditional Chinese.

According to Wikipedia...
'Before the creation of Hangul, Koreans primarily wrote using Classical Chinese alongside native phonetic writing systems that predate Hangul by hundreds of years, including Idu script, Hyangchal, Gugyeol and Gakpil. However, due to fundamental differences between the Korean and Chinese languages, and the large number of characters, many lower class Koreans were illiterate. To promote literacy among the common people, the fourth king of the Joseon dynasty, Sejong the Great, personally created and promulgated a new alphabet.

Felt transported back in time to 18th century looking at this

Switched my phone camera to selfie mode and took a shot of the ceiling inside.

One of the many smaller temples

Another small temple

Selfie with Hive account@davidke20

I'm not sure if this is the entrance or the exit lol...but we exited here.

Went into Beomeosa Museum and learned more about the temple history. This is an ancient text preserved in the museum.

Additional information on Beomeosa Temple:

Snack

We took the same bus #90 downhill. On our way walking back to Beomeosa Station, we stopped for a snack. Dumplings again, yeay!

2 types of dumplings - pork & kimchi fillings. Both delicious. Cost KRW 5000.

Geumjeongsan Cable Car Ride

Originally, I wanted to visit Geumjeongsan Fortress but we didn't have enough time and there was a lot more walking, climbing, even hiking that needs to be done. Actually, Beomeosa Temple is connected via a hiking trail to one of the 4 fortress gates. But my research revealed that to take the trail, we would need hiking gear and know how to read Hangul. Because the trail signs are all in Korean. So, I went for the next best option which was to take the cable car up the mountain with the hope we could make it to South Gate fortress.

The journey to the cable car station was not an easy route. Those travel blogs don't tell you exactly what it takes to get there. Of course, the easiest way is to take a taxi but that's also the most expensive way. From Beomeosa Station, we took the train to Oncheongjang Station. From there, we walked about 15 minutes, following Google Map to reach Geumgang Park. Inside the park, we found a signboard called 'Ropeway'. It means cable car. The ticket booth is about 150m from the park entrance.

Inside Geumgang Park, finding our way to the cable car ticket booth.

Got our return tickets for KRW 8000 each. Last ride down is at 1800hrs.

Watch our cable car ride as we ascended the line

The car has no air conditioning and very limited seats. Difficult to have a good view if there are a lot of people, so don't go on a weekend.

Following a trail.

Didn't know where we were going as there are no directions in English. Google Map didn't show any trails, only indicated directions and walking duration.

Outside a temple

Rice wine?

The whole morning and afternoon, we were on the same mountain but instead of journeying to the fortress from Beomeosa Temple, we took the cable car at the other side of the mountain as I read from travel blogs the trip up to the fortress' South Gate is much nearer from there. Unfortunately, after much walking we were still very far from the fortress.

Unknowingly walked into a picnic spot or a rest area. Great views.

The hills are alive!

Contemplated to continue up or abandon the search for South Gate

By the time we tracked back to the right spot for the hike to the South Gate, it was already too late.

We missed 1 ride just as we reached the station. While we waited for the next ride, I got suckered into having pajeon and an iced cold beer. Suckered because the tiny weeny meal was the most expensive of all the meals in terms of portioning. But satisfaction-wise it was worth it because was like a reward after what felt like having climbed 2 hills in one day.

Cost KRW 13200 (around RM 50)

Read Hive account@davidke20's experience of Geumjeongsan. Something snapped on the way back. And his take on the pajeon.

This is how the old ajumma prepared the pajeon.

Watch

After the meal, the last car arrived just in time. Another 15 mins walk back to the metro station, changed train and back to Sasang. In between changing metro lines, we walked past a shop in the underground mall and got a new bag for hubby.

Hive account@davidke20 looked happy because he got a new bag for only KRW 10000 at the metro underground mall. Lots of deals there.

The best remedy for tired feet is to soak them in a hot tub of water. Good thing my itinerary for the remaining of the trip have less legwork.

And so, our dinner that night was Korean instant noodle.

While enjoying the noodles, we idled away some time and browsed through 100+ TV channels before I drifted into oblivion. Was still thinking about that fortress we didn't get to go.

The only zombies I saw were the 2 of us.

Stay tuned for #lazymom Travels To Busan Korea-7 Days Itinerary:Day 3

Find out what happened before this post:

Lazymom Travels To Busan Korea - Preparations For The Trip

Lazymom Travels To Busan Korea-7 Days Itinerary:Day 1

Disclaimer : Unless stated otherwise, all photographs posted in this blog are owned exclusively by Frances Aw.